The Moral Bean

This article was written by a guest contributor, Nic Pavao.

Nearly everyone has felt the buzz of The Bean. It grants reprieve from the veil of disillusionment that plagues our complacent souls. It powered the millennial tech boom that brought you the internet, the iPhone, and ’Tiger King’. It nourishes graduate students and drives academic success! So then maybe it’s no surprise that the global exportation of coffee from it’s native East Africa immediately preceded the Enlightenment. The dawn of the 17th century saw the maiden shipment first touch Venetian shores − by 1654 the inaugural English coffee house was founded in Oxford − and then thirty years later Newton published the Principia − the rest is history. Do I mean to suggest that credit for the scientific method, contemporary rationalism, and modern democracy is due to a single diminutive bean no more than a centimeter in length? Certainly not. I’m just stating facts. Interpretation shall be left as an exercise for the reader. Regardless of your skepticism about the narrative I’ve insinuated above, no one can deny that the cultural impact of coffee in our society is unique - and with great power comes great responsibility. So in the sections to follow I hope to provide some insight into important questions that we should all ask ourselves regarding coffee: how can I be a responsible consumer? What are the pros and cons for different methods of brewing? And finally, once I’ve pulverized, soaked and pressure treated every last microgram of caffeine out of my beans, is there anything left I can do with the waste? Knowledge is power, my friends − proceed with caution.

Fair Trade

As I alluded to above, the global presence of coffee is a fairly recent development in human history - and too is the increasingly severe wealth inequality between the nation states of the northern and southern hemispheres. Moreover, most coffee is grown, processed and exported from equatorial regions home to the nations with comparatively underdeveloped economies. This has made the production of coffee an opportunity for economic exploitation where profits are disproportionately awarded to US and European based companies that organize the supply chains, rather than to the farmers that actually cultivate the land and harvest the crop. This is the motivation for addressing what it means to be a responsible consumer of coffee − and a natural segue for explaining the phrase that every disciple of The Bean knows too well: fair trade. Anyone that has walked into a local cafe or roastery has no doubt heard this phrase − you might have even seen this logo on a bag of grounds:

Before explaining what this marker indicates, allow me to expound a little on the economic motivation for the principle of fair trade. The idea is a simple one. We live in a world where some countries started developing quicker than others − not because of intellectual superiority or some executive order from the divine − but because of the universal law that governs all forms of randomness in this uncaring world: luck. Back in the 17th century, the time was ripe for economic development and it just so happened that the Europeans (and their revolutionary offspring) got there first; and not by much! If you look around, the most underdeveloped nations, where coffee is abundantly grown, are only about 20 years behind − the blink of an eye in biological time. But economic growth is nonlinear ; and in the world of development, 20 years is everything. Anisotropies in wealth distribution can quickly balloon if legislation is not in place to temper exponential growth. Enter stage left, the economic principle of fair trade. Fair trade policies are established to give developing markets the opportunity to catch up, by requiring supply chain managers to provide the same economic freedoms to workers, regardless of their countries economic standing. The dominant enforcer of this principle, and the producer of the certification label above, is Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, or FLO for short.

Without going into too much detail, FLO is a conglomerate of national fair trade organizations representing three producer networks based in Africa, Asia and Latin America. They help moderate trade and production of goods in dozens of developing markets − not just coffee. The key issues that FLO addresses include child labour, gender equality, climate change, and of course, living wages. Producers that meet FLO standards are permitted to print the mark of approval on their packaging. As a result, coffee products with this certification are priced as though they were produced in more developed countries, where FLO labor standards are commonplace. Now, why would large for-profit companies agree to these standards when they could abuse their power [1] to reduce production cost and maximize dividends for shareholders? Because of you, the educated consumer! The creation of fair trade has provided economic incentive for companies to implement the same labour practices internationally that are accepted and fought for by workers and consumers in their own country.

By choosing to buy fair trade beans, you are asserting that all humans, regardless of their upbringing, are entitled to the same cutting-edge labour standards − even if those standards are established in a disparate corner of the globe. Moreover, by accepting prices of FLO certified [2] coffee as the true value of the commodity, you’re extending a lifeline to a human unknown, so you can surf the wave of innovation and development together. However, doing so is not purely an act of altruism. As I mentioned, economic growth is nonlinear. The strength of global markets is worth more than the sum of its parts. A rising tide does not just lift all boats in the bay: it opens schools, creates new technology, allows freedom for intellectual debate and political discourse, and casts the human seed to other planets beyond our humble beginnings on this pale blue dot. All of this can be realized, and it begins with your principled purchase of The Moral Bean. Great − now that you’ve acquired your fairly traded coffee, it’s ready to be brewed. What are some of the options available to you as a Bean addict?

Brewing

I will begin with some good news: brewing coffee by and large is incredibly sustainable. Most brewing methods only require the use of a biodegradable paper filters [3] − and many others require nothing at all besides the brewing appliance. Remembering the processes available to you for juicing your bean is easy − just remember the simple mnemonic inspired by the stimulant nature of the drinks active ingredient [4] , SPeeD: Steep, Press, Drip. Below are just a handful of common brewing practices that fall under these categories:

• Steep − Filter : Coffee Bags (don’t do this) − Filter-free: Cold Steep, Soft Brew, Percolator

• Press − Filter : Aeropress − Filter-free: French Press, Espresso

• Drip − Filter : Cold Drip, Standard Drip, Nitro Brew − Filter-free: Vietnamese Phin!

If you are unfamiliar with any of these brewing procedures, I highly recommend investigating them further to figure out which method is right for you. Brew your truth!

However one might note, there is a pervasive brewing method that I have left off this list − and given the ubiquity of espresso-based coffee drinks in our society, you might be surprised to hear that this omission ranks ahead of espresso in the order for the most common ways to brew. In fact, in the US, it is second only to standard drip coffee. I am of course talking about coffee pods − the most popular of which by far in the US is the K-cup.

For those unaware, the K-cup is a plastic coffee pod with an aluminum cover manufactured by Keurig, a branch of the Green Mountain coffee company. The brewing procedure is simple: you pop the single-use pod into Keurig’s special machine, it punctures a small hole in the aluminum seal and flushes steaming water through the capsule. The final product is a single, perfectly brewed cup of drip-like coffee. What happens to this pod after it’s been juiced? It’s thrown into a landfill since recycling centers cannot efficiently remove the coffee grounds from the aluminum and plastic casing. How many of these pods can be found in landfills across the US, you ask? Enough to construct a lasso that could reach the moon and completely wrap itself around it − thrice [5] . What is Keurig’s resolution to piles of their product waste growing in landfills? They kindly ask their customers to remove the soaked grounds and return the emptied pods to the distributor... where the company proceeds to burn the excess plastic.

So with the severe environmental impact that K-cups present, juxtaposed with their often watered down version of the standard drip coffee, why are they so popular? The real selling point for Keurig is the efficiency with which you can create your morning cup of Joe; and that is certainly appealing for the workaholics among us. So, for those of us that crave in-home coffee without the prep, is there any good alternative? In fact, there is; and it is produced by a Swiss based branch of Nestlé by the name of Nespresso.

I have yet to acquire my Nespresso sponsorship (despite countless attempts), so I won’t praise their business beyond what they are due. Nespresso is partnered with Fair Trade International to guarantee their coffee is sustainably sourced from FLO certified producers. Beyond this partnership, Nespresso has constructed the Farmer Future Plan − a savings program that gives their local producers in Colombia long-term financial security and viable retirement plans. It gets better. Every purchase of Nespresso pods comes with a pre-paid recycling bag that UPS (with whom the company is partnered in the US) will pick up directly from your residence and ship back to the local distributor. Once there, the 100% aluminium capsules are recycled to make new aluminium products, like food cans and water bottles. All of these practices make Nespresso one of the most humane multi-billion dollar companies across all industries in the global marketplace today. It almost seems too good to be true [6] .

But it appears I’ve forgotten something − what about the spent coffee grounds, you ask? The company separates them from the capsules at their recycling facilities, and composts them to create nutrient rich soil used by landscapers across the country. With this, we arrive at our final question regarding the life cycle of The Moral Bean: after I’ve indulged in my bean’s divine nectar, is there anything I can do with the waste?

Waste

For those of us that brew our own coffee, the most obvious thing one can do with the leftovers is follow Nespresso’s lead and compost the grounds. As far as high quality compost is concerned, coffee grounds are some of the best additions! To understand why, it’s best to back track and ask ourselves somewhat of an existential question: what is The Bean?

Coffee beans are primarily harvested from two plant species, Coffea robusta and Coffea arabica. These plants are flowering plants (angiosperms) and their seed bearing structure is a stone-fruit, like cherries and peaches [7]. The pit, or seed, inside the coffee fruit is what we all hail as the “coffee bean”. Healthy plants require three chemicals − Phosphorous for root growth − Potassium for a strong immune system − and Nitrogen to promote leaf growth and create the scaffolding for the chlorophylls in their cells. Every young seedling is trying to grow leaves as quickly as possible to convert our sun’s rays into energy. In some sense, leaves do for plants exactly what innovation does for developing economies: it creates nonlinear growth. Thus, seeds are incredibly Nitrogen dense to give the little biological startup the micro-loan it needs to get going.

The high Nitrogen density makes used coffee grounds ideal for compost! To give organisms in compost the energy they need to break down the organic matter in your pit, nitrogen is an essential ingredient. I could double the length of this article explaining the miracles happening inside your compost that make it so damn hot! But for sake of brevity, just know coffee grounds are the perfect additive to start the fire. And don’t worry about the coffee making the soil too acidic: just by brewing your Bean, you have already done your part in diluting the characteristically low pH (high acidity) of the coffee grounds. As an added benefit, the fuel that coffee grounds give your compost makes it a great place to decompose the paper filters you might have just used to brew it. With filter coffee and compost, you can literally have your cake and eat it too!

But compost isn’t the only thing the nutrient rich grounds are good for. Though we often forget, humans [8] are also organic life forms and can benefit immensely from the minerals in the coffee byproduct. For those that are passionate about their skin care regimens (and honestly, we all should be) coffee grounds mixed with coconut oil and honey make a great exfoliating face and lip scrub. The nutrients in the beans help restore damaged skin and their texture is softer and finer than the course grains of sugar typically used in DIY scrubs. The point is that applications for coffee grounds are extensive and rarely is there a reason they need to be destined for the bin.

With that, we wrap up our investigation into the life-cycle of the Moral Bean. Each one of these topics really deserves its own attention, and hopefully their discussion serves as a starting point for your own personal investigations; and I hope if you find anything of interest you’ll feel motivated to share it with the Grounded Grub community by writing your own article. To conclude, I will leave you with my own personal rules for a life filled with coffee: buy fair trade, brew your truth, compost the grounds − and fuck K-cups.

All hail The Bean.

This column will include “footnotes” that appear throughout the article, designated by the number of the note in bold.

1. Alternatively, why would workers in developing countries choose to work for a producer that didn’t meet these standards? Without getting into the issue of forced labour, the answer is simple: in a country decades behind in economic development, what we consider an occupation with poor working conditions is just a typical job − maybe even a good one compared to what is available. This is the power of economic growth: when there is infrastructure for plumbing, no one needs to shovel shit.

2. Fairtrade International’s market dominance over the fair trade certification, has invited criticism from competitors that it holds a monopoly on an ethical label. This critique of the organization should be considered, since monopolies are best equipped to manipulate markets against the interests of the consumer. However, as mentioned, FLO is a decentralized conglomerate. So exploitation of fair trade markets would require a concerted international effort to undermine their founding principles. This is certainly a safeguard, but by no means airtight.

3. There is still environmental cost to the production of these filters. Luckily, as I discuss above, there are many ways to reduce your consumption of these paper products and maximize the sustainability of your brewing process.

4. Trimethylxanthine − C8H10N4O2 − More commonly known as Caffeine

5. This figure is often equivalently reported as being able to wrap around the Earth nearly 11 times over. That’s over 10 billion K-cups.

6. But it’s not.

7. While both peaches and coffee fruits are drupes (stone fruits), unlike coffee, peaches are part of the Rose Family.

8. Homo Sapiens− sentient complex structures composed primarily of carbon. They owe their global dominance of native planet to efficient information sharing through the atmospheric medium, an abstract symbol system for external memory and their tightly knit social networks. Despite this, they take a great deal of pride in individual merits. They are harmless for the most part, and overall self destructive.